Purgatory, Canto 11

The Text of Purgatory Canto 11 (Open PDF)

Summary

THE penitent Proud draw near, saying the Lord’s Prayer. Virgil inquires the way, and is told by Humbert Aldobrandesco to turn right and go along with them until the stair is reached. While Humbert is telling his own story and asking for prayers, Dante hears another soul calling him and recognizes the painter Oderisi, who discourses upon the vanity of earthly fame. Oderisi then points out his fellow-penitent, Provenzano Salvani, who by one great act of humility performed for loves sake obtained release from the place of waiting and immediate admission to Purgatory.

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• Prayer again emerges as a major theme in Purgatorio. Why begin canto 11 with a re-written version of the Our Father or Lord’s Prayer? What relationship does Dante seem to be identifying between humility, poetry, and prayer? 
• Is Dante’s decision to re-write the Our Father a sign of his pride or his humility? 
• How does Dante depict the relationship between Church militant and Church penitent?
• How does Dante use Oderisi to explore the recurring themes of pride, artistic skill, and the vain pursuit of glory? How do lines 100-102 contrast with Brunetto Latini in Inferno 15?

The Canticle in this Canto

Purgatory, Canto 11 © Jan Hearn

The Images

Lower Purgatory: Love Perverted.  (See below for the general summary of Lower Purgatory.)

Cornice 1: Pride (cont.) The Penance of the Proud: the Heavy Stones. On this Cornice the penance consists in submission to the opposite virtue. The heads that were held high are now bowed in a necessary humility beneath the weight of sinfulness externalized as cold and heavy stone; and the eyes that looked down upon their neighbours are now unable to look up. (That, incidentally, is why the “Whip” of Pride is placed opposite the Mouth of the hollow way, so as to be seen by the soul on its arrival and before it assumes its burden.)

The Proud: (1) Pride of Race: Humbert Aldobrandesco the aristocrat; (2) Pride of Achievement: Oderisi the artist; (3) Pride of Domination: Provenzano Salvani the despot..

Lower Purgatory: Love Perverted: There is no actual existing person or thing that is not, in some degree, a proper object of love. The only wrong object of love is the love of harm, which results when love for object A is perverted into hatred for object B. Since God is the source of all good, to hate Him is a delusion and to harm Him is impossible; neither does anyone really hate or want to harm himself. In practice, therefore, Perverted Love is love of injury to one’s neighbour, springing from the evil fantasy that one can gain good for one’s self from others’ harm.

• Cornice 1: Pride (Superbia) (love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbour).
• Cornice 2: Envy (Invidia) (love of one’s own good perverted to the wish to deprive other men of theirs).
• Cornice 3: Wrath (Ira) (love of justice perverted to revenge and spite). Mid-Purgatory: Love Defective
• Cornice 4: Sloth or Accidie (Acedia) (the failure to love any good object in its proper measure, and, especially, to love God actively with all one has and is).

Mark Vernon's Lecture